Tags, Real-Time Data Model

Real-time database, event driven data exchange

FrameworX applications are organized around the real-time data. The functional Modules, such as Alarms, Scripts, or Graphical Displays, runs independently using the centralized Data Model to exchange the real-time information.

Key Concepts

In order to organize the real-time data, there are 3 key concepts: Tags, Assets and Templates. 

Tags

In the context of this platform, the term "tag" refer to real-time variables and their associated historical data.

Tags are accessible for read, write and subscription by the various Modules. For example, the Devices Module can map the value of the Tag with field equipments , such as PLC registers; or the Datasets Module can connect tags with SQL databases tables and queries;  or the Scripts Module can perform calculation and analytics with the tags. The graphical Operator Displays shows values mapping to the Tags, independently of the data source for its value.

The Tags can be created in the project (Local Tags) or remote tags from other systems can be dynamically accessed using the Tag Provider connectivity. 

Assets 

The Tags in the projects can be organized in a tree structure, allowing to group variables that are related in the same folder, creating an hierarchical representation of the process. The term asset also refers also to the physical equipment in the production environment, that equipment will relate with a group of Tags, or a Template, that represents the real-time state of that equipment. 

Templates 

Templates are user defined data structures, also known as UDTs (User Data Types). 

Typically, the equipments on the field will have various variables for realtime monitoring. Instead of creating one Tag to each variable, it is possible to create a Template with those variables, then create one Tag with that Template type.  

Defining Local Tags

All tags have a specific type for its value, such an integer, text or DateTime. The many pre-defined Tag Types are the Built-in tag types. In addition, the tag type can be an UDT (User Defined Type) or Tag Template .

Tags have also pre-defined properties, such as Description and Array size. Different tag types may have specific properties, but most properties are available to all Tags.

When creating the Tag, some of those properties are defined in the configuration — such as the Description —, some of the properties are only accessible when the application is running — like Value, Quality and Timestamp. The complete set of Tag properties when running the project is referred as the Runtime Tag Properties. 

Built-in Tag Types

The built-in tag types are based directly as extensions of the .NET datatypes. The tag types are summarized in the following table:

Reference Type

Reference tags allow dynamic addressing of variables. 

The way you use Reference tags in the project is similar to how you use references in .NET programming, as they both have a defined type. The target type for the Reference is defined in the Parameters columns.

Typed references bring advantages in both the engineering stage and in runtime. In the engineering stage, it allows IntelliSense to directly browse the template members if a reference is pointing to a template. In runtime, it allows string data validation. 

All Reference tags have an additional runtime attribute: the Link property, which specifies which tag that the reference will be linked to during execution.

Essentially, the Link property is a string property that needs to receive the target tag name before using the reference tag. You can assign a string directly or by using a string expression. The best way to set the link property is to use the method GetName(), which will create the string based on the current tag name. This way, you can rename the tag without having to search the strings. This also shows the tag names linked on the cross-reference utility. 

Examples:

@Tag.Reference1.Link = @Tag.TagName.GetName();

@Tag.Reference1.Link = @Tag.TagName.GetName();

@Tag.Reference1.Link = "Tag.TagName";

@Tag.Reference1.Link = "Tag.TagNa" + "me";

The reason for using the GetName() method instead of using strings directly is that with GetName() you retain the benefits of Cross-Reference and Refactoring. 

Creating and Editing Tags

To create new local tags:

• Go to Edit → Tags → Objects and insert a new row with the tag properties defined in the columns.
• or, in any configuration windows, just  click the  <<< IMAGE >>>. New Tag button on the Top Toolbar
• or, when at the Edit → Tags → Assets, use the NewTag toolbar button <<IMAGE >> to create a tag at the selected asset level
• or, by copy-paste the data form Excel or another project;
• or, using the other Importing tags tools.

To edit the properties of existing local tags:

• Go to Edit → Tags → Objects and edit the row with the tag definition you want to modify. Multiple rows selection is allowed. << Link editing data grids >>.
• Select a Tag Name at the top toolbar << IMAGE >> and click the Tag Properties button at the toolbar << IMAGE >>

Either creating a new tag, or editing tags, in the datagrid view or the properties dialogs, the tag has the following configuration fields: 

The fields above are visible by default on the datagrid view. To add or remove columns, right-click the column heading area and check or uncheck the columns that should be visible.

Tag Value formatting 

The format property defines the display format of tag values. For example, N1 defines a number with one decimal place, like 2.1

These formats follow the specifications provided in Microsoft .NET.

Import Tag Definitions 

There are many ways to import Tag definition to the project:

• Just Copy from other Projects and in this Project.
• Copy Paste from Excel
• Importing CSV files 
• Using the Import Tag Wizards
• Using the EngWrapper API 

Import from Excel

Importing Tag and PLC Addresses

You can copy and paste the contents of an Excel table. As long you include the title of the columns when you copy and paste the contents of the table, the tables in your project can have different columns or can be ordered differently. The system will put the data in the expected columns, even if the order is different in the source.

To create and import Tags:

• In Excel, make a table with the columns that are shown below. 

To successfully import the tags, you need the TagName, Type, and Address columns. 

• After you chose the device protocol and create a new node, click the Import button. Then, choose the .CSV file that contains the tag's information and click the Ok button. 

• The Tags and Points will be created automatically in  Tags.

• Device → Points 

After you use the Import tool for the first time, the system will save whatever settings you used. The import button turns into the "Sync" button. This make the button execute a synchronization that verifies the previously imported addresses and the new ones.

Import from CSV Files

Individual CSV File

In this scenario, we are importing items for each individual table that is available throughout the Engineering Environment.

In your Engineering Environment, you should find a toolbar located on the top of the display with green arrow in it.

In Tabs that do not contain a table, the import icon is unfocused and is unable to be selected.

For Tabs that do contain grids, the import button is available when the grid is on focus (selected). When the import button is clicked, a dialog window will open.

Browse for the csv file and click Open.

Examples

To better understand how to use this feature, we are going to add Alarm Items into our sample project.

Assuming we have two Tags, Tag1 and Tag2, in our project. Each tag must have an alarm configured to it.

1. Tag1 - Belongs to ’Critical’ Alarm Group and triggers an alarm when its value is lower than 20.

2. Tag2 - Belongs to ’Warning’ Alarm Group and triggers an alarm when its value is higher than 80.

The import steps are:

• Go to  Alarms → Items, create a dummy row, and copy it (Ctrl + C).
• On your external Table Editor (e.g. Excel, Google Docs, Notepad, etc), paste the copied content.

3. Fill your table with the required information.

4. Save the file as a ‘.csv’.

5. Go back to the  Alarms → Items page and click the Import CSV File Button.

Extended CSV Files

In this scenario, we are using a single .csv table to import information on Tags, Devices, Alarms and historian items.

In your Engineering Environment, navigate to Run → Extensions → Import. You should see many supported files that can be imported into a project.

Select the CSV file and browse for your Table File.

The table must obey a certain format. The required columns can be obtained by following the same method as in the previous section; copy from project and paste on Sheet Editor.

The difference in this method is that the final table is a concatenation of the various grids from the project.

Examples

To illustrate the usage of this feature, we will add a couple of items to our sample project. The following items will be added:

Tags:

• MyTag1: Integer DataType and StartValue = 0.
• MyTag2: Digital DataType.

Alarm Items:

• MyTag1:

1. HiHi alarm limit (configured for ‘Critical’ alarm group) set to 95
2. Lo alarm limit (configured for ‘Warning’ alarm group) set to 10

• MyTag2:

1. Hi alarm limit (configured for ‘Critical’ alarm group) set to 1 and Message ’Tag Alarm is Hi’.
2. LoLo alarm limit (configured for ‘Warning’ alarm group) set to 0, Priority set to 1 and Message ’Tag Alarm is LoLo’.

Historian:

• MyTag1: Added to default Historian Table ‘Table1’.
• MyTag2: Added to default Historian Table ‘Table1’.

The table that contains all the columns and rows required to import the items described above can be found in the pictures below (with additional columns):

Following the importation procedure in Run → Extensions → Import, select the CSV option, browse for the filled csv file, and click Import.

Creating Templates

Templates allow you to create new tag types based on a data structure using existing built-in types and previously defined Templates.

To create a tag template:

• Go to Tags → Templates.
• Click New.
• The "Create New Tag Template" dialog will open.
• In the "New Type Name" field, enter a name for the tag type. In the Description, enter a description of the tag. Click OK. The Templates tab displays with the name of the new template at the top of the tab.
• Click the insertion row to create a new attribute for this tag template.

• Enter or select information, as needed. The properties are the same ones for Tags. See Creating and Editing Tags above.

• To delete a template, select it from the User Custom Type drop-down list, then click Del.
• On the Objects tab, you can now use this new template in the Type column.

Editing and Viewing Assets

Assets allow to organize the tags of your project into a hierarchy.

For an example on how the Asset tree can be used the projects, go to Self-aware Asset Displays

The Tag Namespace

The Tag namespace exposes properties and methods of the .NET objects used by the Tag Objects.

This section describes only some commonly used properties.

In this section...